Atherosclerotic renovascular disease: diagnosis and treatment

The technical expertise and tools required to treat renovascular obstructio n have become commonplace, and many series of patients revascularized with surgery, balloon angioplasty or endovascular stenting have been reported, N evertheless, although hypertension and renal failure are easy to diagnose, their cause often remains elusive, Evidence is developing that patients wit h hypertension and atherosclerotic renal artery stenosis may often have hyp ertension and renovascular disease but not hypertension because of renovasc ular disease. As a result, diagnosis and therapy are increasingly directed towards the preservation of renal function, and the future of renal revascu larization will depend on how well potential therapies address this goal, C urr Opin Nephrol Hypertens 9:659-668. (C) 2000 Lippincott Williams & Wilkin s.